Extra, Extra
Ballroom Lancing: “‘I don’t like the fund at all,’ said Sen. John Curtis (R., Utah), who added he didn’t believe any guardrails could fix it. Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), who is retiring after Trump regularly criticized him, called it a ‘payout pot for punks.'” The Trump IRS slush fund is not all that popular, even with Republicans. And funding for the new ballroom polls about as well as a punch in the face. Will these issues finally mean Trump’s enablers have found their bottom? (It’s hard to imagine, but we can hope.) WSJ (Gift Article): Trump on Collision Course With GOP Over Controversial $1.8 Billion Fund.
+ Highway to EL: “The biggest episodes of the past have altered the course of human events, according to researchers. An emerging one is drawing historic comparisons.” A Powerful El Niño Is Forming. If History Is a Guide, It Could Hit Hard.
+ It’s Getting Old in Old Havana: “Widespread blackouts on the fuel-starved island and spotty phone signals meant word of the new, steep escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign on the Cuban government was slow to reach many of Cuba’s own residents.” NYT: In Blackout-Hit Cuba, Word of U.S. Castro Indictment Spreads Slowly. (Cuban citizens who have been victimized by their own government are now being victimized by another government in the name of stopping that victimization.)
+ Cut Loose Like a Bruce: “I am here in support tonight for Stephen because you are the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we got a president who can’t take a joke. And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want. Anyway, Stephen, these are small-minded people, they got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.” Springsteen on the penultimate episode of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.
+ Legal Gamble: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has signed the nation’s first law banning prediction market sites from operating in the state, and in response, the Trump administration has sued, teeing up a legal battle over the most far-reaching crackdown on popular services like Kalshi and Polymarket.”
+ Batman and Robbing: “Batman is being held hostage in a Mississippi warehouse. So, too, are James Bond, Doctor Who and Cruella de Ville. Not even pop culture’s grumpiest cat, Garfield, can escape. They’re among thousands of characters represented in roughly 8.2 million comics, graphic novels, figurines and table-top games held for months in a 600,000-square-foot warehouse formerly operated by a major comics distributor that went bankrupt in 2025.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): JPMorgan Fights Over Millions of Comic Books Locked in a Mississippi Warehouse.
+ The Vagina Dialogues: “Maybe you need a $30 VMagic vulva balm. Does sex feel uncomfortable? A $115 vibrating massager, sold by The Pelvic People, claims to ease ‘intimacy-related tension and anxiety.’ To prevent recurring UTIs, there are Mineral Undies; to ‘reduce pressure around your pelvis,’ there is pain-free underwear. If you suffer from recurrent bacterial vaginosis, Happy V and Bonafide say they have pills to break the cycle. If you’re not sure what you suffer from, Evvy can provide you with a $348 at-home microbiome and UTI test and a ‘vaginal health coach.’ The wellness crusade has come for the vagina.” NYT (Gift Article): The Vaginal Wellness Boom Is Here.
